Things Will Never Be the Same Again

I followed Molly up a flight of stairs, onto a landing and through another hallway; she led me to the third door on the right and swung open the door.
The room was quite small, barely big enough to accommodate the single bed that had been squeezed into it.
“It’s a bit… tight fitting, but the house is a bit stretched to its limits with the amount of people staying here I’m afraid.”
“No, it’s fine” I smiled
“I hope you don’t mind staying here dear, we have all agreed that it would be the safest place for you”
“I don’t mind.” I shook my head “But, I don’t have any of my stuff with me”
“Oh don’t worry about that, it’s all being taken care of.” She smiled “Now come with me and I will introduce you to people that are more your own age.” We walked down the hall a bit further until we reached the fifth door on the right, Molly opened it to reveal a ruckus of noise.

“HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF” Four kids, probably around my age, were chanting and dancing around the room, none of them seemed to even notice Molly and I standing at the entrance. There were another two sitting on the bed, they noticed straight away.
“Stop!” Molly called in a loud voice. Slowly the chanting and dancing died away. “I want you all to meet Jess, you heard about her at breakfast?” I could tell she tried to keep the last bit as quiet as she could. “I want you all to be nice and welcoming”
Molly pushed me forward into the room a little so she could close the door behind me. “I’ll call you when it is time for dinner dear” She smiled at me and with a shard snap of the door closing she had gone. I was disappointed to realise I’d missed lunch.

Suddenly a huge crash and bang cut through the silence.
“FRED, GEORGE!!” Molly screamed from what sounded like the end of the hallway.
“Gotta go” Two of the boys in the room said at once, they were obviously twins. With a loud crack, they were gone.
“Hello there, my name’s Hermione” A pretty girl stood up from one of the beds in the room, she had very curly hair.
“Hi” I said returning the smile she was giving me.
“This is Ron, Harry and Ginny” She added pointing them each out. They all said a mumbled hello.
“So is it true, did you really fight Voldemort?” The boy named Ron burst out, it looked like he had been dying to ask since I’d stepped into the room.
“Ron! Remember what your Mum said?” Hermione whipped around, scolding him.
“Who’s Voldemort?” I asked.
“Right, of course, you don’t even know” Ron said. He launched into an explanation straight away, Hermione monitoring what he was saying the entire time. The afternoon flew by as Ron, Hermione and Harry filled me in on who Voldemort was and what he did. Ginny had to leave half way through as Molly forced her into helping with some cleaning.
“That’s horrible! He really killed all those people?” I asked after hearing a story Harry had told me about Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
“Yep” Ron and Hermione were playing a game of chess and were trying their best not to get too distracted.
There was suddenly a knock at the door; I was the closest so naturally I walked over to open it. I was just about to reach out for the handle when there was another loud Crack and the two twins appeared right in front of me. I got such a fright that my legs gave way and I went tumbling over and landed on the ground with a thud.
“Oh! Terribly sorry, here, let me help you up” The voice belonged to a boy a bit older than my age, 16, who had the same fiery red hair just like Arthur’s and Molly’s.
“Thanks” I muttered as the boy pulled me to my feet.
“The names George.” He smiled, holding out a hand. I shook it feeling a little embarrassed at my serious lack of coordination. I reckoned that Ginny and Ron were related to them too judging by the identical hair they all shared, I gazed around the room lost in thought. “Uh, not that I mind, but I will need that back sometime.” I looked back at the boy named George; he nodded at his hand which I was still holding. I let go immediately and felt my face begin to glow.
“Hello, I’m Fred.” The other twin grinned, extending his hand to me just like George had. I shook it but this time remembered to let go. He looked a bit disappointed at that.
“She can tell who the better twin is you see” George whispered to Fred.
“Anyway, we came to tell you lot that dinner is ready and to hurry up before it goes cold” Fred announced. George winked at me.
Crack. They disappeared once again. The rest of us travelled to the kitchen the normal way, by walking. Hermione had just finished explaining to me that Fred and George were using a kind of magic called apparation. It seemed amazing. I was completely fascinated by it, but it seemed like I was the only one that was, in fact, everyone else seemed quite irritated by the constant cracking noises.

Dinner that night was unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my entire life. I mostly sat in silence as I watched the different kinds of magic being performed. Everyone of age was using it, except for Fred and George who had been banned using magic around the dinner table. Knives were cutting vegetables on their own accord; a big wooden spoon was stirring the contents of a huge cauldron by itself while hovering in mid-air over a fire. Molly was waving her wand around the room to settle cutlery and plates in their correct places.
Even during dinner bottles of some very sweet drink kept appearing out of nowhere, it was all fascinating. I could hardly believe that everyone else in the room just thought of this as normal behaviour.
I was quite ready for bed as the last few plates made their way to the sink, supervised by Molly waving her wand at them. I felt like I would be able to sleep for an entire week if I was given the chance.
“Right you lot, off to bed” Arthur nodded toward the twins, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and I. They all seemed to squirm and complain about how they weren’t even tired yet. I wasn’t complaining though, I stood up straight away. I was glad to have the chance to leave the table without seeming rude.
“Good night” I said to the table, standing up and in return got a whole roomful of good nights.
“Sleep tight” George grinned before getting a brutal stare from Molly, I managed to stifle a giggle and left the room quickly.
I lay awake for only a few minutes that night as I thought about my Dad and how he would want me to be dealing with all of this. I was sure that if he’d been alive he’d have wanted me to learn how to control what I could do and make the best out of such a terrible, horrible situation. I felt tears trickling down my face as I thought about my Dad before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.